The survey indicates that there is a need for more Latino focused outreach regarding the recent changes to the voting system in Colorado, as 56% of Latino eligible voters in Colorado incorrectly believe that they can show up to vote on election day at their polling location. Knowledge levels of the new voting process are low across all sub-groups of the Hispanic population in the state.

The survey also reveals important differences in enthusiasm based on gender. Only 32% of Latinas in Colorado indicate that they are more enthusiastic about voting now in 2016 relative to the 2012 race compared to nearly 50% of Latino males. Nearly a quarter of Latinas in the sample are less optimistic about the power of high Latino turnout to impact outcomes. Interestingly, only 4% of Latinas in the sample believe that women’s health or gender issues are the most important issue facing the Hispanic community that Congress and the President should address.

Although the next two polls dove much deeper into the Millennial sub-group, this initial poll has identified some important trends we will build on with the next two surveys. For example, we see that Millennials are enthusiastic about some issues, particularly environmental policy. In fact, we see that a robust 91% of Latino Millennials support the federal government taking steps to reduce pollution and address climate change. However, this critically important age group is the less certain to vote in this election cycle and appear to be less enthusiastic about voting in 2016.

Finally, although this poll confirms that immigration policy is a key policy issue among Latinos in Colorado, we find some important nuances that have implications for outreach and mobilization efforts. For example, when respondents are asked open ended questions regarding what policy issue is the most important to the Latino community, 33% of the sample identifies immigration/immigration reform as the most important issue that Congress or the President should address. However, when asked the more general frame on this question that does not cue ethnicity immigration drops considerably to 10% among other key policy issues on the minds. This along with some of the variation we see in this poll by nativity and generational status provides a lot of useful insights for folks in the field to use with their methods.

This study was conducted by Latino Decisions in collaboration with the Latino Data Project. The poll included live interviews of 500 Latino registered voters in Colorado by telephone through both landlines and cell-phones. Respondents answered in English or Spanish at their discretion. Results were weighted to known population characteristics using the Current Population Survey. The nominal margins-of-error for the poll is 4.4%.